1. Prepare for water-bath canning

It will probably take half an hour or so to bring the water in your canning pot to a boil, so fill it up and put it on the heat well in advance (when the recipe says “Prepare for water-bath canning” is a good time). Wash the jars well, then submerge them in the water as it heats up. If the recipe says to sterilize the jars, make sure the water covering the jars has been at a full boil for at least 10 minutes before pulling them out and filling them. If the filled jars will be processed for 10 minutes or longer, there’s no need to sterilize them first, as they’ll be sterilized during processing.